What’s up team!?
I want to talk about a semi-radical shift in the way we at IA approach the WOD, specifically when it comes to rowing and other monostructural movements programmed (assault bike/ ski erg/ bike erg). Previously, we have written distances or calories similar to the way weighs are written, in a Male/Female format (i.e 20/15 – guys do 20 cals and girls do 15); however, we are going to change that up moving forward to provide athletes with a few more options! From now on you will see this work programmed into the Fitness/Performance/Open standards at the bottom of the workout, very similar to how we often may prescribe a different amount of double unders for each level.
In doing so, we will be able to preserve the intended stimulus in the workout, and provide athletes with options depending on their skill and comfort level with rowing. We will be working with the coaches to provide athletes with a target time domain and relative exertion level that we expect the row to take, so athletes can choose the appropriate track based on their ability. Feel free to mix and match w/ other levels based on your proficiency with the other movements in the workout. (IE: Fitness target calories, Performance weight).
For a quick example, lets look at today’s workout were athletes will have 1 minute of rowing every other minute in an EMOM.
Fitness: 12 Cal
Performance: 15 Cal
Open: 18 Cal
This should be a sustainable pace that you can hit the same split for each minute of the workout and should be finished in about 45-50 seconds each time. If you start to fall off pace then you can bump back to the next track down or move up if you are hitting it too easily.
I hope this change allows us to feel more comfortable on the rower and understand better what we are looking to accomplish by the stimulus of the workout!
Love you guys,
Davidson